Croxall on Books

First, books are fun. Second, they’re powerful: if you master four or five books, for example, you know chemistry.

Crane asks, “Does the same idea apply to the humanities?” Science studies the world; since humanities tends to study books, we can’t simply take five books and say that’s enough. Do you have all the primary texts as givens; can you find four or five books that distill the essence of your field?